When he looks at the red Cape Cod-style house across the street, Kenny Pierce sees potential.

But he can't overlook the rotting siding, the damaged drywall, the leaning white picket fence and the aging pipes and wires.

"The person who owns it has been sitting on it and hasn't done anything," said Pierce, a construction worker by trade. "Maybe it's time for somebody to come in."

That time may be soon. The home at 204 W. Philadelphia Ave. may find itself under new ownership if a Wicomico County judge rules that the city of Salisbury can appoint a receiver for the property.

The city is suing the owners of three abandoned houses to force them to hand over the keys. They are the first properties city officials have targeted since the City Council created the receivership program in June 2013.

If the city wins, they won't be the last, Mayor Jim Ireton said. He and his administration have long fought to take a tougher stance against blighted properties.

"If it stays vacant and is allowed to continue to deteriorate, all the people who live in the houses on either side are going to say, 'Why should I live here? How is this helping my property value?" he said.

Salisbury sues owners to take derelict houses

Receivership programs have been a key weapon in many large cities, including Baltimore, in their struggle to weed out vacant, decaying buildings. The programs allow municipal building officials to appoint a receiver for derelict properties who can give them to people or entities determined to rehabilitate them.

Officials have singled out Habitat for Humanity of Wicomico County and Salisbury Neighborhood Housing Services as two potential recipients. Administrators at both nonprofits say they are eager to get started.

"I think it's a great idea," said Joan Mulvanny, Habitat's executive director. "They're eyesores, and when you have houses that are dilapidated it affects everyone's perceptions about where a neighborhood is going."

With the program, the city is employing the "Broken Windows" theory, Ireton said. The theory gained traction in law and civic circles after New York City's police used it to turn the city around over the past decade and a half.

The idea is to make the city inhospitable to serious crime by attacking the problem indirectly, stifling property violations and small offenses first.

Its enforcement in New York City, though, led critics to accuse police of heavy-handed tactics. The department's "stop and frisk" program came under particularly heavy fire.

Ireton said the three court cases, filed simultaneously on May 5, will test whether Wicomico County has the stomach for his blight-fighting methods.

"We've got far too many judges who don't like rules about property ownership," the mayor said. "But we're going to find out whether we get the right one."

The city's largest property-owner organization, for one, is wary of the program.

"We're not a fan of government getting involved in pretty much anything. We believe in the private sector and for-profit ways to fix the situation," said Bret Hopkins, owner of property-management firm Fairfax Station Enterprises and president of the Salisbury Area Property Owners Association.

Councilwoman Terry Cohen is a fierce and frequent advocate for what she calls ""the little guy," particularly against the forces of government intrusion. But the homes identified in the three lawsuits are "good candidates" for the program, she said.

"While it is important to be sensitive to the property rights of those who may not have the means to keep or return a property to a functional state, there are other little guys who must be considered —"the nearby residents and property owners whose physical well-being and financial interests are endangered or harmed by properties remaining in derelict and abandoned conditions," Cohen said.

The judge's decision adds another layer of protection, she added.

The homes are selected for the program by city code enforcement officials. That one of the three houses is on the same Philadelphia Avenue block as Ireton's home is a mere coincidence, said Susan Phillips, the city's top code enforcement official.

The fines owed by the owners range from $500 to nearly $13,000, but money isn't the motivating factor, she emphasized. Code enforcement violates on the Philadelphia Avenue home, for instance, date as far back as 2009, she noted.

None of the owners of the homes — the Cape Cod on Philadelphia, the brick house at 1110 N. Division Street and the yellow two-story at 527 Wailes St. — could be reached for comment.

The cases haven't been assigned a court date yet.

As far as Pierce is concerned, sooner would be better. He would like to see the home go to someone in need, such as a wounded war veteran.

"The structure of it has a whole lot of potential," he said.

jcox6@dmg.gannett.com

410-845-4630

On Twitter @Jeremy_Cox

ABOUT RECEIVERSHIP

What properties qualify?

Those that are "inadequately maintained" and have failed to satisfy code-enforcement violations. It also includes condemned buildings or those ordered demolished and those that have been boarded up for six months or longer.

How are they selected?

Code enforcement officers nominate them from a list of problem properties.

What happens next?

A judge may appoint the city's housing official as the receiver to rehabilitate, demolish or sell the structure. The city plans to sell to nonprofit housing organizations.